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Online Baby and Toddler Sessions

Photo: Dad and baby.

Relaxed, online sessions for you and your deaf baby or toddler to enjoy together

Our free online sessions are ideal for deaf children to enjoy with their families. Parents, carers, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins are welcome to join.

Browse upcoming sessions below and book your place for free.

Happy Hands: Baby Sign Sessions

Happy Hands are relaxed signing and singing sessions for 0 to 4 year olds.

At these interactive online sessions, you and your little one will have fun while singing well-known songs and nursery rhymes and reading some of your favourite stories. We’ll use toys, teddies and colour to grab your child’s attention and engage them through the screen.

To help boost your child’s language development and communication skills we’ll:

  • explore rhythm, pitch and repetition through singing
  • learn some British Sign Language (BSL) signs to highlight key things we learn about each week.

Using signs in this way can add an extra layer to your communication at home.

Happy Hands is not a BSL course but is a fun way to support your child’s development and learn some everyday signs.

Bring the whole family (plus pets and favourite toys) to start learning more about communication in a playful way!

Explore the garden

  • Thursday 18 April
  • 10.30am to 11.30am

We’re out and about in the garden this session. Join us to see what creatures we’ll come across!

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Picnic

  • Thursday 25 April
  • 10.30am to 11.30am

Come and join us this week as we go on our very own online picnic. What lovely treats will we have with us?

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Swimming

  • Thursday 2 May
  • 10.30am to 11.30am

Happy Hands is off swimming this week. Get ready to meet some sea creatures!

Come along as we enjoy reading Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins. We’ll also be singing and signing some fun movement songs like Row, Row, Row your Boat and many more.

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Deaf Awareness

  • Thursday 9 May
  • 10.30am to 11.30am

Increase your child’s confidence in their deaf identity by talking about it from a young age. We’ll be reading a storybook with a fantastic deaf character and singing that very familiar Baby Shark song, plus many more. Don’t miss out.

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Bedtime

  • Thursday 16 May
  • 10.30am to 11.30am

Winding down for bed is a lovely time in the early years with bubbly baths and stories before we snuggle down to sleep.

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Baby and Toddler sessions

Baby and Toddler sessions are online singing and storytimes that are fun and informal. They're delivered by our Bright Start team and combine singing and storytelling with child development advice and ideas for deaf children aged between 0 to 3 years old. The sessions also offer an opportunity for parents and carers to talk to each other about topics related to early childhood deafness.

Connecting with other families while having fun with your little one is what Baby and Toddler sessions are all about, so come along once a month and join in!

New sessions coming soon! 

Communication support for our events

We'll have experts on hand to support you in joining the event online. You can also watch or download our guide to joining our online events.

Zoom auto-generated captions and British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters will be available.

If you have any questions or require any other communication or language support, please email [email protected].

Meet your hosts

The Bright Start team will be on hand to answer any of your questions at our Baby and Toddler Sessions.

Our Happy Hands sessions will be led by expert Kathryn.

Kathryn, Bounce Along to Happy Hands Session Leader

Kathryn has over 10 years’ experience of working with national deaf charities. A parent herself, and with a degree equivalent in BSL, Kathryn offers warm and family-friendly Happy Hands classes. She introduces easy and helpful BSL signs to boost your child’s confidence and early communication though play, singing and stories.

Flo Perlin, Baby and Toddler Sessions

Flo has worked at the National Deaf Children’s Society since 2021. Prior to this Flo was a children’s emotional health and wellbeing worker. She has also worked on adventure playgrounds and forest schools, and has run music workshops for children in deprived areas of the UK. Now her work focuses on supporting deaf children in early years and helping families to thrive. Her role involves delivering in-person and online sessions for families to sing, sign, read and play together, including developing online tools and resources for families.
Flo has a first-class degree in child development and play work. She is an accomplished musician/singer songwriter, trained on cello, piano and guitar.

Razia Azhar, Baby and Toddler Sessions

Razia Azhar has worked at the National Deaf Children’s Society since 2021 and is a Programme Officer for the Bright Start team. She works with families and their deaf children within the crucial early years, promoting language, literacy and communication.

After finding out her own daughter was severely deaf at the age of 3 years old, Razia immersed herself in the deaf world, its culture and community. She aimed to gain all the knowledge she could to better equip herself for giving her daughter the best possible start and support in life. She now passionately passes this knowledge and personal experience onto the families she works with.